Janus (moon)

Janus

Discovery
Discovered by	Audouin Dollfus[?]
Discovered in	1966
Orbital characteristics
Semimajor axis	151,472 km
Eccentricity	0.007
Orbital period	16h 40m
Inclination	0.14°
Is a satellite of	Saturn
Physical characteristics
Mean radius	88.8 km
Mass	1.98×1018 kg
Mean density	0.65 g/cm3
Surface gravity	~0.017m/s2
Rotation period	16h 40m (synchronous)
Axial tilt	0.015°
Albedo	0.5
Atmosphere	none

Janus is a moon of Saturn discovered by the French astronomer Audouin Dollfus[?] in 1966. Dollfus is credited with the discovery of Janus but it's not really certain whether the object he saw was Janus or Epimetheus and his observations led to a spurious orbit (Walker[?] discovered it independently but his telegram arrived a few hours after Dollfus'). Larson[?] and Fountain[?] determined in 1978 that there are in fact two moons sharing one orbit. This was confirmed in 1980 by Voyager 1.

For more information about Janus and Epimetheus' unusual shared orbit, see Epimetheus.

Janus is extensively cratered with several craters larger than 30 km but few linear features. Its surface appears to be older than Prometheus' but younger than Pandora's. From its very low density and relatively high albedo, it seems likely that Janus is a very porous icy body. There is a lot of uncertainty in these values, however, and so this remains to be confirmed.